


Battle for N'Kendon

by omega_owl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Allies, Big battle, F/M, Fluff, Lance comes out, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Original Location, dream team best friends, sacrificing themselves for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 09:10:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19331515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omega_owl/pseuds/omega_owl
Summary: Affections will be revealed and battles will be fought in this heart-pounding story of galactic liberation.Voltron is known throughout the universe as the valiant defender of all. When the Castle of Lions receives an urgent distress signal from the nearby planet of N'Kendon, the Paladins rush to their aid... but this time, some things have changed between them.Lance struggles with his own self-discovery. Keith is torn between his romantic attractions and his fears of rejection. And through it all, Pidge and Hunk remain the dream team, watching everything go down ...So begins Battle for N'Kendon, a Voltron: Legendary Defender fanfiction...





	1. N'Kendon's Hail - Shiro

"Uh, Pidge?" I called, keeping one eye on the creatures under the table. "How many of those trash floofs did you adopt, again?"

The Green Paladin poked her head up from her laptop. We were all in the lounge, and I was just about to leave for the training deck when I heard scuffling under the side table. "Two," Pidge replied. "The green one's Gamora, and the yellow one is Starlord."

"That's what I thought," I said, "Because there are six of them under here, and they've made a nest."

"What?" she threw down her laptop and dropped to peer under the table. The yellow floof was surrounded by four miniature versions of itself in various colors, none of them larger than walnuts, while the green one hovered guard. "Holy shit, I grabbed a  _mating pair_? Those names were supposed to be for  _fun_ , I didn't expect them to actually be in love!"

"Having trouble with tribbles over there, Pidge?" asked Hunk with a grin.

"Apparently, yes."

"What's going on, now?" asked Coran, coming over.

"Pidge's pet floofs gave birth to a litter of babies," I explained.

"Pet whats?" The moustached Altean joined Pidge in looking under the table. He immediately brightened. "Ah! Picked up a couple of Ruubish motelings, have you, Number Five? They do make excellent pets, they were as popular as space mice and cosmic wolves back on Altea." He stuck his hand underneath and scritched Starlord's fluffy body, making it purr happily. "Just look at this proud momma and her healthy youths!"

Pidge furrowed her brow at him. "Wait, momma? Starlord's a  _female_? So, then...  _Gamora_ is the male?"

"It appears so. Here, pet the yellow one." While Pidge did so, Coran grabbed the green one that was scuttling around. "Female Ruubish motelings have much coarser fur than males - other than that, it's pretty hard to tell them apart."

"Huh," Pidge said, absently running her fingertips along the creature in Coran's hands.

Lance suddenly appeared beside us. "Can I see? he begged. "Where are the baby floofs, are they cute?"

"Yeah, they are," I said. "They're under the table. Don't spook them."

"Oh, no, I won't," he assured me, dropping down. He let out a soft gasp. "Look at their little  _feets_ and  _antennae_ , oh my gosh Pidge they're adorable. Can I have one?"

"Sure, I guess."

Coran held up a finger to stop him. "Not so fast," he said. "These juveniles won't be old enough for you to take away from their momma for several months yet, by the looks of it."

"Oh." He stood back up, sheepish. "I call the blue floof, though."

"It's yours," Pidge declared. To Coran, she asked, "So, how many litters does an average mating pair have?"

The Altean stroked his moustache in thought as he looked into Gamora's eyes. "Well, yours look fairly young, so... I'd say they've got several dozen left in their lifetime."

Her face went ashen. "Yeah, no. Where's the nearest spay and neuter clinic in this quadrant?"

Allura suddenly burst through the doors. "We're being hailed," she said. "A distress signal from the ambassador of the N'Kendon system, they've received information that the Galra are planning an attack on their moons."

"How far away?" I asked.

"Less than five doboshes by teludav."

"Let's investigate. Tell them Voltron is on its way." She nodded and left the room again.

Pidge took the green floof off of Coran's hands and placed it down. "What's in the N'Kendon system?" she asked.

Coran immediately pulled up a star map and enlarged a planet a little ways away from the Castle's current position in space. "This is N'Kendon," he explained, "a large gas planet orbited by eight moons and one artificial, permanent star base. All of the moons are populated by an alien people known as N'Kendonites, in addition to a few minority races." He pulled up a couple of images of humanoid aliens with skin like white platinum and matching, brightly-colored hair and eyes. "They were close partners with Altea, despite being on opposite ends of the galaxy - notoriously clever weaponsmiths and acutely disciplined soldiers, the lot. They joined the Voltron coalition and have been supplying our allies with sophisticated  blasters and and sabers."

"The Galra are probably trying to cut off supplies at the root," Keith brooded. "It's a solid plan."

Coran nodded. "Now, according to Allura, the person we'll be contacting is Cipessa Rega An'danderala of N'Kendon Two, the ambassador for the entire N'Kendon system. The title 'cipessa rega' would be the same as 'heiress apparent' or 'future queen', to you and me." He pulled up  an image of a green-haired female with a scar across one eye.

Lance raised an eyebrow. "Hel- _lo_ ," he smirked.

"Why aren't we talking to an actual queen?" Pidge asked.

"Because the queen - or Rega - of N'Kendon Two is busy with other things." Coran minimized the picture of the Cipessa Rega and brought the diagram of the planet's moons back to center. "Each moon of the system is ruled by a royal family. The Reg and Rega of each moon serve on a planet-wide council that governs all domestic affairs, while their heirs often assume the positions of galactic ambassadors. An'danderala has been N'Kendon's representative when it comes to Voltron Coalition correspondences."

"Question," Hunk said, raising his hand halfway, "what's the difference between N'Kendon and N'Kendon Two?"

"N'Kendon is the planet and all of its orbiting satellites. The locals tack a number onto the end of that name to identify a specific moon out of the eight. The star base they simply refer to as 'the star base'. And, Pidge, you're in luck - the nearest pet sterilization clinic to our position is located on N'Kendon Five."

"Sweet. Remind me to schedule an appointment."

"Anything else we should know?" I asked.

"No, that about covers it." Coran said, twisting one end of his moustache between two fingers. He then sprang into action. "Alright, everyone, suit up into your armor. Like Allura said, we'll be there in five doboshes once we make the wormhole jump, so you'd best hurry. We want to make a good impression on our allies, don't we?"

"Of course." I nodded to the rest of the Paladins. "Meet you on the bridge. Let's defend the universe."

 


	2. The Star Base - Pidge

A dozen or so figures stood in the command room of the N'Kendon star base. The room itself was actually kind of small - a giant round table, ringed with low holo-screens and projecting the entire N'Kendon system in various colors (because what were they, animals?) took up most of the space. The curved opposite wall was made up of big panel windows overlooking the actual planet, as well as a couple of the nearest moons. The system's sun shone way off in the distance of space, hiding the celestial bodies in night. Lights from the major cities could be seen even from this far away. It was like the International Space Station back on Earth, but way cooler.

The closest figure stepped away from the table to greet us as we entered, which snapped my attention back front. She had emerald-green hair and eyes, and skin that almost looked like shiny white metal - as well as a scar cutting through her right eyebrow and cheekbone, leaving the eye in between milky white. "Paladins of Voltron," she beamed, clasping her hands before her. "Thank you again for coming to our aid. I am Cipessa Rega An'danderala of N'Kendon Two, the ambassador in chief of this star base."

Allura spoke up. "We are honored to make your acquaintance, Cipessa Rega. I am Princess Allura of Altea."

Shiro stepped forward and shook hands with the N'Kendon royal. "Shiro, the Black Paladin," he said. He nodded to the rest of us, and we introduced ourselves in turn.

"I'm Hunk. Yellow. Nice to meet you, Your Highness."

"The name's Lance. I fly the Blue Lion. I could give you a tour if you're interes-"

I elbowed Lance in the side, right in the soft spot of his waist that makes him spaz out on reflex. I got him perfectly. He almost careened into Hunk as he doubled over. "My name's Pidge," I told the Cipessa Rega pleasantly, adjusting my glasses. "I'm the Green Paladin."

"I'm Keith. I'm Red," said the boy to my right with a respectful nod of the head.

An'danderala acknowledged us all, then turned to the Altean princess. "The Blade of Marmora keeps us up to date with relevant intel from the Galra empire. Our sources claim that a vigilante Galra commander has set eyes on N'Kendon."

"Do you know when they will strike?" Allura asked.

"No," she shook her head, her long green hair swishing. "Our informants gave us an approximate window between right now and several quintants from today. They could appear at any moment. Our long-range scanners are on full alert..."

While the adults talked battle strategy, Lance leaned forward to narrow his eyes at Keith, on the other side of me. "That's it?" he sniffed. "'I'm Keith?' No conversation, no elaborating?"

"At least I'm not making doe eyes at her and stumbling around like an idiot," he retorted through his teeth. "I told her everything she needs to know. This is a formal introduction, not a blind date."

Lance crossed his arms and made a point not to look at the Red Paladin. "I wasn't even flirting  _that_ much," he muttered.

Keith snorted and said, "Gimme a break. You said 'the name's Lance'."

"So?"

"You always say that to flirt with girls. 100% of the time."

"Not 100%," he insisted. "I said it to you when you didn't remember me, back when you were saving Shiro from the Garrison scientists. You were stealing my win right out from under me. I sure wasn't feeling like flirting then, you were pissing me off." 

That last bit had him stumbling over his words as they came faster than usual. Keith just huffed and glowered. I made eye contact with Hunk behind Lance's back, and we gave each other the same exasperated look. We had a bet going over which of them would make a move on the other first - Hunk said Lance, but my money was on Keith. Over the past month, they'd started having more and more conversations like that one, and after Keith officially came out as gay a while back... I mean, it was only a matter of time.

The doors we had entered through suddenly opened again, and my heart leaped when I saw who was there.

"Sorry I'm late," said Matt, giving an awkward wave. "Galra fighters shot down our hyperdrive back in the Aiello asteroid belt and we didn't even realize until the whole fleet warped away without us."

"What are  _you_ doing here, nerd?" I grinned.

He smirked. "Nice to see you too, Pidge."

An'danderala turned away from her discussion with Shiro and Allura to inspect the newcomer in his scruffy rebel gear. "And who are you?" she asked.

My brother blinked at her, then went an impressive shade of red before extending his hand. "Matthew Holt of the rebel alliance, here to back up Voltron as... uh, as you requested? I assume?"

"Oh, of course," she said. "Thank you for coming, Matthew Holt. Cipessa Rega An'danderala of N'Kendon Two."

"Great. Nice to... it's my..." he cleared his throat. "Lovely to meet you, Miss - ah, I mean, Your  _Highness_ , excuse me."

I thought I saw her smile a little, but as soon as she turned to introduce some of the N'Kendonites in the room, it was gone, back to business. The wiry male with his lime hair in a ponytail was her brother, Cipess Amroldin, her head engineer. The tall N'Kendonite in the corner was her personal sniper. The female with bubblegum-pink hair and bandoliers of phaser gun ammo slung across her hips was her fiercest shocktrooper general. The blue-haired male beside her was the Cipessa Rega's artillery commander. There was a pair of twin N'Kendonite half-breeds on her panel, as well - the female was a fighter pilot captain, and the male was her chief strategist, each one with hair in varying shades of purple and mauve.

I snuck a glance back at Matt during the onslaught of names and bright colors. His jaw was set tight and he was staring at An'danderala, one fist clenched in front of him, his face still super red.

I smiled. First Allura, then the N'Kendonite princess... he sure had a thing for alien royalty.

I snagged Shiro as his diplomatic chat disbanded. "Hey Shiro," I said, "What are we gonna do until the Galra show up? She said it might be days."

"Yeah, what's the plan?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah," he said, long and drawn-out, as he surveyed the room again. He chose his words carefully when he spoke again. "Let's... return to the castle. And keep alert, be ready to get to our lions at a moment's notice. The Cipessa Rega assured us that she would contact us the moment N'Kendon's scanners picked up any activity."

Hunk and I shared a quick glance. "So, it's chill time until they show?"

"Fine. Yes," he sighed, "It's chill time."

"Sweet," I grinned, setting off for the doors that led to the launch decks of the star base, where our lions were parked. "Hunk, let's go reprogram the particle calibrator to do that thing we talked about." As I took one step through the doors, I realized he wasn't following me. I turned around to find him watching Lance saunter up to the mauve-haired female fighter pilot. Keith's sulk over in the corner had intensified - he was watching Lance, too. 

I gave Hunk a smirk as he finally left the room with me. "Lancey Lance went after a female again, didn't he? Poor Keith. I can  _taste_ that 200 gak."

"Just because he's flirting with a female doesn't mean he isn't going to start in on Keith anytime soon," he insisted. "You're no closer to winning than I am."

"Whatever you say, man."


	3. Failure - Keith

The briefing was over soon enough. And what did he do the second An'danderala dismissed us? Started hitting on her fighter pilot captain, the half-breed twin with the tufted ears and short mauve hair. 'Not flirting that hard', my  _ass_.

I watched him lean backwards on the control board off in the corner and give her that sideways smile. I watched her tip her head at him in interest. I watched his lips form some charming remark, and hers part in a grin. He secured himself a new girl, it seemed. Loverboy Lance at his finest.

I felt sick to my stomach.

I couldn't stand watching him while trying to look inconspicuous anymore. I pushed off the wall, intent to get back to Red and the castle while we waited for the Galra to strike.

And froze midstep.

 _Watching_. All I ever did was watch him flirt around, and it never failed to make me jealous as hell - but I never  _did_ anything about it. I always just seethed, or got up and put some distance between us to calm down. Like I was about to do.

I clenched my fist. Not anymore. I wasn't just going to let his bullshit fly. I would tell him off this time. I'd march right over there, grab him by the shoulders, look him dead in his eyes and tell him,  _Lance, there's something you need to know_...

Yeah,  _right_.

One single step towards him was all it took for my newfound resolve to crumble. That, along with the sight of the female pilot gazing up at his face, completely enraptured.

What was I doing?

He was in the middle of a conversation, as much as I hated to admit it. Yanking him away would just be selfish and rude. Not to mention, what was I even going to say?  _Lance, I love you? I want to be your boyfriend? You mean the world to me?_  Thinking over those words in my head, they sounded comical. Cliche as all get-out.  And what would he do in return, laugh in my face?

I couldn't do it.

At that very moment, I caught a glimpse of Lance's gaze flicking to me in my corner of humiliation. I quickly turned my head and focused on the nearest thing at hand - the other half-breed twin, the strategist with the purple hair, studying multiple holoscreens before him, his back to me.

When I dared sneak a glance back at the Blue Paladin, he had resumed his flirting with new vigor. Bitter envy punched me in the chest. It was almost like he was  _trying_ to piss me off.

I looked back at the purple-haired N'Kendonite. Well. Lance was clearly keeping an eye on me, for whatever reason. That shouldn't've made my heart leap as much as it did. But maybe just this once, I'd start giving him a taste of his own medicine.

I sure couldn't tell him how I felt, but I could make him jealous of me.

I approached the strategist and cleared my throat. "Hi," I said. My voice sounded forced.

The alien's tufted ears - they reminded me of a fennec fox - twitched in my direction before he turned his head. He had a narrow face and arching eyebrows. He was attractive enough, for a brightly colored humanoid. "Yes?" he said.

Suddenly, I was at a loss for words. How did Lance pull this off so  _effortlessly?_  Where do I even begin? "What's your name?" I asked.

He blinked his purple eyes. "I am So'kehha," he said.

I gave him a smile I hoped looked inviting. "So'kehha. That's... that's a nice name. I'm Keith."

"Keith," he said, testing out the name.

"Yeah. Red Paladin. Hi."

"Is there something I can help you with, Red Paladin?"

I had no experience in this field, but I could tell pretty clearly that I wasn't getting anywhere with him. Maybe a different angle? "Your ears are cool," I blurted out. "You're... you're not full-blooded N'Kendonite, are you?"

He brought a hand up as if to touch them. "Well... thank you. And no, I'm not. My twin sister and I are half Feyrin."

"Feyrin?"

He inclined his purple head out the base's windows, at the system beyond. "Another humanoid race native to N'Kendon Seven. A relatively isolated minority group."

"Oh, cool. I'm, uh, I'm actually a hybrid, too," I said, grasping at straws. So'kehha raised an eyebrow. "I'm half Galra, actually. I know I don't look it. My mom's part of the Blade of Marmora. Galra resistance-"

"Are you alright?" he asked. "Your face, it's... turning red."

Fuck. "No," I lied, "I'm fine. I'm... excellent. Never been-"

"I'm sorry," he said, holding up his hand and shaking his head. "I don't mean to interrupt, I just... I must know. All these questions. Are you... are you seeking me out as a potential mate?"

 _Fuck_. I wasn't prepared for that at all. Did Lance ever get called out like that? How would he recover?  _Could_ he? Could  _I?_  "Uh... kind of?" I admitted tentatively. "A little. Yes."

So'kehha's expression softened with pity, and my heart sank. I steeled myself for my failure. "Oh," he said. "Red Paladin... Keith, I'm sorry, I... I already have someone back on N'Kendon Seven. He and I have been partners for several phoebs."

The one gay alien I happen to stumble across just so happens to be taken - and therefore immune to my catastrophic attempts at flirting. I wanted to die. "No, no, I'm sorry," I said, stepping back. "I was just... to be honest, actually, I was..." I cleared my throat and subtly inclined my head at Lance. "... trying to make him jealous. It's no big deal."

Now he looked confused. "The Cipess Amroldin?"

"What? No," I said, turning around. An'danderala's engineer brother was standing in the same general area as Lance and the pilot. "No, not  _him_. I mean... the Blue Paladin. Over there."

"Oh, I see." His eyes lit up with understanding. "It's not me you seek, nor the Cipess, it's your  _teammate_. Lance, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Heat was creeping up my neck. Talking about that in the open was making me want to bolt. "Don't say that so loud, though."

"Apologies. I won't tell a soul," he insisted. "I'm sorry I can't help you out in the way you'd like me to - flirting back, I mean - it would feel like casting off my own mate... but I wish you luck, Keith."

"Thanks," I said hollowly. God, did I need it. I finally took my leave of that train wreck of a conversation and trudged for the doors. I felt drained. I needed a good long nap before I could feel up to forming Voltron and sharing a group comm link and consciousness with Lance.

Who was probably still hamming it up with that half-Feyrin pilot female.

I cast one final glance back at him, and my heart thumped painfully under my armor. Except that he  _wasn't_ hamming it up.

He was looking at me. How long was  _that_ going on? Did I actually do it? Was that jealousy on his face?

I hurriedly left the control room at last, walking faster than usual. The doors slid shut behind me, shutting me off in the long, well-lit corridor that stretched from the hub of the star base to the landing pad with our lions. My armored boots clunked on the metal.

And then I heard those doors behind me slide open again, and that high voice call, "Keith?"

I turned. Lance was walking towards me, his mouth quirked in a confused slant. The doors closed behind him. Sealing us in alone. "What's up?" I asked, crossing my arms.

He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the control room. "What did you want with that guy?"

"Why does it matter?" I fired back, seemingly on reflex.

He shrugged defensively. "Nothing. I mean, it doesn't. You just seemed to be really engrossed. And your face was as red as that "V" on your chest."

"Oh," I internally panicked, fighting the urge to pat my own face and make sure it wasn't like that then.

"I mean it wasn't that bad, but you sure didn't look comfortable."

"Why not?" I parried. "I mean, I was chatting it up with an attractive alien. Why shouldn't I be comfortable?"

An expression I couldn't place fell across Lance's features. He just stared for a heartbeat before saying tightly, "You... you were flirting with him?"

Oh, boy. "Why should that come as a surprise? You do that stuff all the time."

"Yeah, I know, I... I thought you..." He shook his head. "Flirting is...  _my_ thing, I thought. What gives? What changed, this time?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you," I snapped. "Why should my motives be any of your business?"

"Is it the ears?"

"What?"

Lance was grinning, now. Weird. Ten seconds ago, he kind of looked crestfallen. "It's because you're part Galra, isn't it? Those fluffy ears call to your primal instincts."

"What primal - no," I exclaimed.

"All that time with the Blade of Marmora turned you into a furry, huh?"

"Shut up, I told you that's none of your business," I snarled, but his grin kept growing. He was playing with me, and I was giving him the reaction he wanted. Encouraging him. Damn him.

"So..." his smile seemed to falter, "Are you gonna hook up, then? He give you his number?"

"No, for your information. He's already got someone."

"Oh." He cut his eyes to the side, resting his hands on his narrow hips. "That's a shame, Once Iv'na kicks me to the curb, I was planning on trying my own luck on him. He was pretty cute." He sighed once, then clapped me on the shoulder pad. "Well... his boyfriend is one lucky dude. I'll, uh... see you back at the castle."

But I had gone very still My wide eyes drilled into the back of his head as he passed me. Our bodies were mere inches away in that moment. "Lance," I said, "You mean... I'm sorry,  _what?_ "

He looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. "What's the matter, Mullet?"

I was at a loss for words - partly because I hated that nickname, partly because that eyebrow lift was  _fucking adorable_ , but mostly because... "Did you... just say you... that you're...?"

"Bisexual?" Lance wasn't grinning anymore. His face was unusually calm as he said outright, "Yeah, I am. Something I realized about myself recently."

My heart was pounding in my ears, so hard I was sure it was going to explode.  _He likes guys he likes guys he likes guys holy fuck he likes guys -_

"What's it to you, Kogane?"

I could tell him. Right then. Or I could cut to the chase and straight up kiss him on the mouth. I could do it, no more slinking around, no more jealousy, no more angst, no more pining...

But while my mind was trapped in my fantasies, my mouth, instead of crushing against his, formed the words, "That's... that's great, Lance. Who else have you told?"

He shrugged. "No one, actually. You're  _numero uno_. Pidge probably suspects, of course, but she's a nosy little gremlin so I wouldn't be surprised if she's figured it out on her own."

"Oh. Well... thanks for telling me."

"No problem." He turned away with a raised hand wave. "See you."

"See you," I breathed, barely audible. I still couldn't stop staring as he receded down the corridor. God damn, did he have a nice ass. Especially in that formfitting armor.

The second the airlock doors closed behind him, I wound back and slammed my fist into the wall as hard as I could.

~

" _Shiro_ ," I exclaimed hoarsely, punching the pad to open the door to the Black Paladin's room. The panel slid away, revealing the Japanese man - and  _Allura_ , sitting on his bed, her head tipped to the side, deep in conversation. Her jewellike eyes snapped to me instantly, and she rose. "Oh, hello, Keith," she said.

"Hey, Keith," said Shiro.

"I need to talk to you," I said, still out of breath from running all the way from Red's hangar.

He blinked. "Sure, pal, what's wrong?" He and Allura shared a glance, and she nodded before slipping out of the chamber past me. I was too flustered to pay her any attention.

Once the door was closed, I gripped my long hair in my fists. "He's bi, Shiro, he's into men, it's official."

His eyes widened, and he sat down on his sheets. "Whoa, slow down. Who's bi?"

"You know who "he" is, who do you  _think_ I'm talking about?" I panicked. " _Lance_. He outright said the words, he told me he's bisexual, what do I even  _do?_ "

"You should probably start by trying to relax."

Despite my rampaging pulse, I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed. Patience yields focus. Right. "Alright," I said after I gained some semblance of control over my breathing. "But Lance. Bi."

Shiro gave me a small smile. "Did he mention any plans on coming out to the rest of us, or were you the only one?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "He said I was the first one he told. I'd... I'd assume he wants to tell you guys, too." I ran my hands through my hair, ending with them interlocked at the back of my neck. "But... what about me? What am  _I_ supposed to do with this information?"

He was quiet for a bit, gazing down at his feet. "Well," he said slowly, "You could always take this as a go-ahead. A sign to lay off the antagonizing and make a move."

"What, like ask him out? Are you nuts?"

"No, not necessarily. I just mean..." He shrugged. "Not brushing off his attempts to bond with you."

I scoffed. "Me, brushing  _him_ off? I cradled him in my arms after he almost died, and  _he's_ the one who claims he doesn't remember!"

Shiro gave me a look.

I sighed and sat down on a chair, my elbows on my knees. "I'm trying," I muttered. "I'm doing my best. This is just a really new situation for me, okay?"

"I know," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to meet his eyes. "I want you to be happy, Keith. But I think that the best thing for you to do right now is... step out of your comfort zone a little. Put yourself out there. Lance appreciates attention, you know that. Try giving him some sometime."

I frowned, skeptical. "What if he turns me down? What if I can't do it?"

"You can do it," Shiro insisted. "And if it doesn't work out... at least you'll know you gave it your all. I don't think you'll fail, though," he added. "The two of you already make a really great team."

I huffed a laugh and stood again. "Step out of my comfort zone, huh."

He nodded with a smile. "Show him you care. You'll do great."

"Thanks, Shiro."

"Anytime, little brother."


	4. Green's Hangar - Pidge

"They're so fuckin'  _clueless_ ," I moaned, thumping my head against my desk in Green's hangar repeatedly. "I mean seriously, could-"  _thump_ "-they get-"  _thump_ "-ANY-"  _thump_ "-gayer for each other?"

"You're gonna bruise your cute face if you keep doing that," said Hunk without looking up from his screens.

I slammed my hands onto the table and stretched over my own to stare at him. " _Tell_ me I'm wrong. I  _dare_ you."

He sighed. "I've known Lance forever. I will admit, I am surprised he hasn't picked up on Keith's pining, or even what effect his actions have on him. He's usually the first person to notice who likes who."

"Except when it comes to his own gay ass, clearly." I lowered my voice, crossed my arms, and glared sideway - my best attempt at a Keith impression. "Lance," I crooned huskily, "I cradled you in my arms. I missed you when I was with the Blade. Lance, Lance, Lance... why won't you notice me?"

Hunk's eyes lit up, and he immediately got into an exaggerated and very Lancelike pose, his feet apart and one hand shading his eyes. "What's that?" he said in character. "Did I hear a confession of love? Keith, did you hear that, too?"

"It was me, Lance, I have the galaxy's biggest crush on you," I exclaimed. I pressed myself against his side like a superhero's cowering babe in an old comic book, gazing up at his face. "Tell me you'll be my boyfriend, Lance."

"Oh, Keith, it was you all along, wasn't it?" Hunk put a hand to his heart. "How could I have been so blind?" he mourned, taking my shoulders and swooping me into a dip so low my body was practically horizontal. I was grinning. "Forgive me, Keith!"

"Dear Lance," I swooned, touching Hunk's face. It was getting scratchy. He needed to shave. "I will always forgive y-"

The bay doors opened and holy  _shit in walked MY BROTHER._ Hunk and I instantly dropped the moony-eyes act and practically shoved each other away in horrified panic.

Matt's eyes were huge and his eyebrows were lost in his light brown hair. "Shit, Katie, am I interrupting someth-"

" _No_ ," I exclaimed, gripping the edge of the desk. "No, no you're not. It's not what it looks like."

"We're not..." Hunk scrambled for words. "She isn't... I'm not..."

"What do you  _want_ , Matt?" I snapped with more venom than I'd anticipated.

He sighed and flopped onto a spare seat. "Advice."

I narrowed my eyes. "Oh?"

"An'danderala is hot as hell, man."

My face lit up. "I  _knew_ it!" I shouted. "You and that whipped-ass look on your face! I totally called it! And you had the balls to lecture  _me_ on  _my_ supposed affections."

"Yeah, yeah," he groaned.

"So, wait, hold up," Hunk clarified, "You like the Cipessa Rega?"

"Unfortunately." He smacked his hands over his face in frustration. "And now, since I panicked during intros, she's calling me  _Matthew Holt_."

"But isn't that your name?"

"Yeah, my  _full_ one! No one calls me Matthew except my mom when she's pissed! Even Allura called me Matt when she first met me," he scoffed, "and she  _still_ ended up with Shiro."

"Listen, I don't know what to tell you," I said, going back to my screens. "I hate all that gushy-moony unrequited love stuff, you know that. Sucks to suck, I guess. Maybe if you take your clothes off in front of her, she'll notice you. Or if you give her a pet trash floof in a few months. Want one? I kind of actually need people to adopt them."

"Come on, Pidge, this is serious," he said.

I sighed. "What do you want me to say? I don't know how to help you out. I've never fallen in love with an alien."

"Well," Hunk piped up, "I don't mean to brag, Matt, but saving Shay's planet  _did_ seem to capture her heart a little. You could easily do the same thing here, for An'danderala."

"Really? How captured was she?" Matt perked up.

"I thought you said Shay wasn't your girlfriend," I smirked at my friend.

The Yellow Paladin froze a little. "Well... she's not, technically. I hardly ever see her anymore, we're always on opposite ends of the galaxy. But she definitely liked me, and I... might have liked her back a little."

"Ah, of course."

"So, you really think saving the N'Kendon system is all I have to do?" Matt asked.

Hunk nodded. "Yeah, definitely. Let her know that she's your number one priority. Ladies love that. What do you think, Pidge?"

"As a lady, I will confirm," I said.

"And you think I can get her to think of me in a romantic way like that?"

"Sure," I said. "You could start by telling her to call you Matt, you know. That'd kick things off."

"Okay." He nodded, then slapped his knees and stood up. "Okay. I'll do it."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, before I lose my nerve."

"Alright. Go get 'em," I said. With a smirk, I added, "Don't let her find out you're a giant weeb. That's a major turn-off."

He drilled me with a glare. "I am not a weeb."

"Not anymore, maybe. Who was your old anime girl crush from seventh grade, was that Asuna from SAO? The redheaded knight from the one about the wizard guilds, with all the fanservice?"

" _No_ ," he squeaked.

"Oh, right, those two were eighth grade. It was that blonde chick from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. What was her name, Wendy? Winona?"

"Her  _name_ is Winry Rockbell." He blinked at my knowing smirk and shook his head. "Whatever. She's a bunch of pixels. An'danderala is real and also a lot cuter."

"So the age-old debate is solved - 3D really is better than 2D, huh?"

"I'm leaving. Bye. Wish me luck." He turned and stalked out he doors.

  "Find some common interests or memories," Hunk suggested before they closed behind him. "See what you can bond over."  

I grinned in my brother's direction. "Good luck, you giant fucking nerd," I muttered cheerfully as if he could hear me.

Hunk looked at me. "You really know your anime."

"Please," I scoffed. "I had to listen to him talk about it for years. The characters are branded into my mind. I'm cursed with this knowledge."

He shrugged. "Think he has a chance with the Cipessa Rega?"

"Maybe," I decided. "As long as he doesn't dork up his introduction, he should be fine. He's a great guy, just super fucking awkward. I hope she notices that." I clarified. "The greatness. Not the awkwardness."

"Yeah," he laughed, "Me too."


	5. Form Voltron - Shiro

The Galra attacked two days after we arrived in the N'Kendon system.

The Paladins and Allura were in the lounge when a holoscreen materialized at the front of the room, An'danderala's face in the middle. "Voltron," she said, "Our sensors have identified two Galra cruisers that have just come out of hyperspace near N'Kendon Six. Their fighters have been mobilized, they will enter the moon's atmosphere in fifteen doboshes. How quickly can Voltron get there?"

I immediately stood. "Just under that time," I told her.

"Excellent. I'm sending a division of shocktroopers to cover you from the moon's surface. They will take longer to assemble, so you will be on your own until they get there."

"We can hold it down until then," said Allura. The other princess nodded once, and the feed cut out.

I turned to my friends. "Everyone, get to your lions. We've got to move it if we want to hit Six before those fighters do."

"You got it, Shiro!" whooped Lance, leaping up and following the others out the doors at a run.

Allura touched my arm before I could leave. I met her eyes. "I'll keep the castle stationed around the star base," she said. "The N'Kendon system is very spread out. There is still a chance the Galra will try for a sneak attack elsewhere."

"Good plan," I said. "You're sure you'll be alright?"

"Of course." She beamed at me. "But if you need backup, let me know. I will turn this ship right around."

"I know you will." I leaned down, gently resting my palm on her cheek, and kissed her. After as long as I dared, I pulled away again.

Allura brought her hand up to cover mine, then slowly brought it down. "Good luck. Stay safe, Shiro."

"The same to you." I kissed the back of her hand before turning away, heading for my hangar.

~

"What's the plan?" Keith asked through the comm link as the five lions rocketed through space towards N'Kendon Six. Even from this far away, I could see purple lasers firing back and forth between the surface of the moon and the two hulking cruisers idling just outside the atmosphere.

"Immobilizing those battleships is the first priority," I decided. "From there, we take out the fighters."

"This is a pretty small force we're dealing with here," remarked Pidge. "From what the Cipessa Rega was saying, I expected a whole fleet."

I shook my head. and tightened my grip on Black's controls. "Doesn't matter right now. Everyone get into formation, let's form Voltron!"

"Yeah!"

With that confirmation, I closed my eyes and opened my mind wide. In order to start the transformation, all of our minds had to join into one multifaceted unit. I threw my consciousness  _out_ , searching, like a sonic wave spreading from its point of origin, coming into contact with anything in its way. The walls of my mind were blown wide open.

My psyche found Lance's first, as it always did. I never knew why, but his ocean-blue aura was like a homing beacon, drawing us all together. I was hit with a brief wave of  _Lance_ as our minds connected - Caribbean water; faces I somehow recognized as his family, though I'd never seen them before; denim jeans; fighting tears.

From there, like a hub and spokes, I branched out and found the rest of the Paladins, as they reached out to find me. Hunk, with his burst of sunlight, warmed rock, tranquility, gleaming metal. Pidge's wave of tall trees, lines of code, glow-in-the-dark, her brother's glasses. Keith's shock of violent sunsets, isolation, rippling fire, bottled-up passion. Within seconds, each of these auras blended with mine, and the yawning void beyond the open doors of my mind was filled with all of  _them_.

The feeling of sharing one giant consciousness with four other people at once used to feel unnerving and overwhelming in the beginning, but now it was as comfortable as breathing. Everyone's thoughts and plans, open for everyone to see and follow. We thought as one.

While this was going on, of course, our lions were taking control to form Voltron.

My arms and legs folded in and retracted, but as I visualized reaching out phantom arms, I could feel Green's and Red's doing the same. I pulled them in, like sliding on long gloves, and there was a grind of metal and a hiss of electricity as they lodged into their positions at Black's shoulders. I reached down the bond and met Keith and Pidge. We had arms, but no legs yet.

That was quickly resolved. By stretching out phantom legs, I suddenly felt Blue and Yellow join at my hips, and the mental sensation became physical limbs of metal - and there were Lance and Hunk, at the very bottom.

Pistons hissed. Black's jaw adjusted to reveal Voltron's hard-paned face. When I opened my eyes, I stood at the head of the colossal robot, its body stretching down beneath me, the four other paladins still linked by our mental bonds.

Voltron.

"Lance, Hunk, full power," I said - I almost didn't need to say it through the link. They were already moving, having sensed my intent through the nebula of our bonds. "Those fighters are almost on the moon's surface."

"On it," came Hunk's voice. Voltron leaned forward, and with a flare from our leg rockets, went shooting off.

We reached N'Kendon Six in a matter of minutes. THere was a large structure on its surface that looked like a long generator building, and all the fighters were diving for it, guns blazing.

I pulled up a video feed with An'danderala, back on the star base. "Cipessa Rega," I said, "What is that building?"

She curled her lip. "Just as I feared. They  _are_ targeting this star base."

"What do you mean?" chimed in Pidge.

"That building is the power generator for this base's communication technologies - comm links, video messages, SOS hails, everything. There's one like it on every moon in this system, each one providing a different sort of power to the base. We split them up so that if there was a malfunction - or attack - on one generator, most of this base's utilities would still be fully operational until reserve power could be rerouted to compensate."

I felt Pidge's aura down in my left hand flare with excitement. "That's genius," she grinned.

"Nevertheless, rerouting power in the event of a malfunction takes time, and we cannot afford for communications to be down for that long now that the Galra have engaged. Defend that generator!"

"Got it," I nodded. "Change of plans - Hunk, form shoulder cannon. We're gonna take out as many fighters as we can, and see if we can draw them away."

I felt a jolt of amber energy shoot my left foot to my right shoulder as the Yellow Paladin's bayard slammed into the receptacle. The cannon materialized next to my head, charged up its shot, then rocked back from the force of the multiple beams of light spearing towards the fighters.

Many were incinerated at once. Some, the beams of light shot right through - and while they were busy combusting, the lasers continued their trajectory into those behind them. The atmosphere was alight in explosions.

"Nice, Hunk!" Pidge cheered.

Hunk's aura glowed. "You know. That's me. Your friendly neighborhoo-"

"More fighters at 8 o'clock!" Lance's shout interrupted him.

"Form sword!"

Red energy flashed as Keith brought his lion together with Pidge's to unsheathe the gargantuan blade. They joined me in choreographing a seamless 180 degree swing that cleaved through the brunt of that squadron. Pieces and halves of fighters fell to the surface from the blow.

"Where's that shocktrooper backup?" Keith hollered as we lunged for another group of fighters that had opened fire.

I sensed Lance's attention shift to the moon's horizon. "There!" he said, "N'Kendonite transports, that's gotta be them!"

I strengthened my scanners and pulled up a zoomed-in video feed of the descending ships - sure enough, the bay doors along their sides were open. Through the smoke and explosions around us, I could clearly make out the long, bubblegum-pink braid of N'Kendon's fiercest general blowing in the wind. She slung a truly gigantic phaser minigun from over her shoulder and leaped into thin air over the generator's docking bay. Several hundred similarly-armed shocktroopers followed suit from each of the other ships. Some even started gunning at fighters before they even hit the ground. Those giant guns punched gaping holes into any fighter they hit.

"Holy cheese," Lance squeaked. "That good enough for ya, Keith?"

"Alright, cut that out," I warned before Keith could retaliate. "I think we can leave them to hold down the fort for now. We should focus our energy on those cruisers still up there - once their ion cannons come online, the generator will be in trouble."

"Mega sword?" grinned Keith.

"Definitely." I summoned my bayard and, along with everyone else at the exact same moment, plugged it into the receptacle. Five points of power shot up our bonds to join in our chest, then down our arm - and the sword grew even longer and sharper. Our thrusters kicked to life and we escaped the pull of the moon's gravity, heading for the nearest cruiser and dodging its artillery.

After some well-placed gauges in the hull, it was soon wracked with explosions

"Alright!" Lance cheered. "One down, one to-"

"Paladins!" Allura's face suddenly appeared on a video link. "We're in trouble. I was right, this was a decoy!"

My heart dropped. Fear and concern was percolating through everyone's auras. "What happened? Are you under attack?" I called.

"I am not, but several more cruisers have just appeared on both N'Kendon Two and Eight - and they have brought Zyforge cannons."

"Like the ones that the Blades and the rebels took control of during the coalition's attack on Naxela?" Pidge's voice was an octave higher.

"The very same. It seems that the Galra have invested in further developing that technology."

Next to Allura's screen, An'danderala's face appeared. She was much less collected. "The generator on Eight controls this base's artificial gravity, and the one on Two is our main electricity hub - if Two goes down, we will have no holoscreens, projectors, or scanners. We'll be blind!"

"What's the big deal about crippling the star base?" asked Hunk.

"We control every military operation, every movement, every coordinated attack. It's how we've maintained such a tight military for millenia. Forces on all eight moons are linked via this base. If we are crippled, they will all be cut off with no way of knowing what's coming at them."

"We need to split up," Lance shouted.

I bit my lip. I was hesitant to disband Voltron so early in the fight. "Hunk," I asked, "Can your shoulder cannon reach the fleets on Two and Eight?"

"No, it doesn't have that kind of range. Voltron can do some cool stuff, but I'm pretty sure I'm maxed out on that kind of firepower."

Damn. So we had no other choice. "Lance is right, then," I declared. "We need to break into lions. Hunk, Pidge, stay here on Six and back up the Cipessa Rega's shocktroopers. Keith, Lance, you head straight for Eight and see if you can take out the Zyforge cannon there. I'll recruit Matt and his rebels for the one on Two."

"Sounds like a plan," Keith squeaked. I belatedly realized I'd just paired him with his crush, but then pushed that thought away. They would be able to keep their focus.

"Okay," I said, "Disengage!"

I visualized yanking my consciousness out of the web of our joined minds, and it severed cleanly. The walls of my own mind snapped back into place. In a flash of light, our legs and arms released their jointures and zoomed in seperate directions. Black's legs folded out in a second, and I threw the levers forward to crank my thrusters to full power.

Like an exploding star, Voltron's lions shot away from each other.

"Matt," I hailed, "I'm en route to N'Kendon Two. I could use some backup."

His face popped up right next to An'danderala's on the same screen - he must have been in the control room the whole time. I should have known. He had been spending practically all his free time at the Cipessa Rega's side. "Way ahead of you, sir," he saluted. "I've already scrambled the fleet. We move out on my command."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." He then turned  to the Cipessa Rega beside him and took her platinum-white hand in his own tanned one. "Fair heiress apparent to N'Kendon Two," he soliloquized, "Do not worry a single emerald hair upon your head. My comrades and I will free your home moon from the threat of the Zyforge cannon. You can put your trust in me."

"What elicits such a grand profession?" she asked, giving him a bewildered smile.

"Nothing less than my heroic thirst for justice, Your Highness."

She barked a laugh. "Well," she recovered, "I... thank you, Matt."

"My pleasure." He kissed her hand briefly before snatching up his helmet and scurrying out the doors.

I'd meant to cut off the connection before then, feeling like an intruder, but I didn't. I was proud of Matt. He was always pretty goofy when it came to flirting, but by the look on the N'Kendon princess's face... it seemed like his charm had won someone over at last.


	6. Ice Ice Baby - Lance

N'Kendon Eight was really pretty. Its atmosphere must have been thinner than the other moons, which all seemed to be forests or hills or jungles, because basically the entire thing was covered in snowy taigas and frozen rivers. Pretty.

Except for, you know, the fact that it was a  _firefight_. We were up against two cruisers ourselves,  _plus_ the Zyforge cannon,  _plus_ fighters. The star base's gravity generator was chilling in a valley between two snowy cliffs. Pine trees and ice shards went flying as explosions went off left and right.

"Keith!" I shouted, throwing Blue into serious evasive maneuvers. "Where are you?! I've got five fighters riding up my ass, I can't shake them!" A laser grazed Blue's hip as if to accentuate it.

"Don't move!" came his voice at last. A searing ray of magma came out of nowhere and melted straight through every last one. I shot clear of the explosions.

"Thanks, man!" I grinned.

"Anytime."

I braced Blue against the cliff, then boosted up into the sky. I'm going for that cruiser, cover me!"

"Gotcha."

Pale blue lasers lanced past my peripheral vision as Keith took down any fighter that got too close to me. Cute, as if he was my personal defender.

I mean, sure, I did  _ask_ him to, but... I don't know, I liked the thought of him protecting me. Like how Shiro protects Allura. Like he cared about something enough to put his life on the line for it... and that something was me. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

" _LANCE!_ "

His scream broke me out of my daydreaming to see an ion cannon blast barreling straight for me. I let out a mortifyingly high screech and barely steered clear in time.

"What were you  _doing!?_ "

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, summoning Blue's jaw blade. "Got distracted."

"Well, don't. That's how you get yourself killed."

I scowled at Blue's monitors. As if my distraction wasn't his own fault. Dumb Mullet. I zipped around and around the cruiser, gouging deep into its hull, then spiraled out of the way of the blasts.

More fighters engaged, but they weren't the spiky-looking Galra drones. The new ones were a shiny grayish-green with bright lime lights and lasers, and their design was much smoother, most sophisticated.  _N'Kendonite fighters_.

"Need some help, Paladins?" came a female voice over the radio.

I brightened. "Iv'na!"

"Who?" asked Keith.

"My lovely half-Feyrin pilot," I said, "come to assist the love of her life-"

"More like come to serve my Cipessa Rega," she said curtly.

My heart dropped.

"And I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression, Blue Paladin, but I'm afraid I'm not  _your_ anything. Don't get ahead of yourself. Unless you ultimately intend to choose me as your mate, of course."

It felt like a blow to the gut. I swallowed. As far as I'd gathered, the N'Kendonites' definition of "mate" meant the same as "spouse" or "betrothed." I didn't think they really understood the concept of casual dating.

Dumped. Again.

I gripped Blue's levers and shot off for the Zyforge cannon with a new ferocity. It didn't matter.  _She_ hadn't come here to defend me. All  _she_ cared about was her duty to the Cipessa Rega.

Suddenly, purple lights along the giant cannon's barrel lit up, one by one. "Uh, guys," I said to any allies within range, "I think this thing's gonna fire."

"What? No!" Iv'na shouted. "A blast like that will destroy everything in the valley!"

I fired my tail laser at some enemy fighters. "Well, I'm gonna need some backup to take it out, that armor looks wicked thick."

"I got you." A red blur whooshed past me, rocketing for the cannon.

I grinned, all sourness from Iv'na's rejection suddenly... gone. "Alright, Keith, let's kick Galra ass!"

It didn't go as easy as I hoped, that became clear  _real_ fast. I was right about the hull thickness. Even with Keith melting the metal on full blast, his progress was agonizingly slow. I fired on the same spot, but nothing was working. And a ball of purple energy was growing at the end of the barrel. Aimed right at the generator.

" _Fucking_ -" Keith swore. "We'll never get through in time!"

I drove my jaw blade into one of the purple glowing sections. A thrill went through me as I pierced deep, glass splintering - right before white-hot electricity shot up the blade and into the cockpit. I screamed, arching in my seat against the charge.

Hazy.

When I finally felt like my heart was beating properly again, I noticed Blue's screens were blaring warning signs. Smoke was curling from the lion's open mouth. We were drifting. I shook my head, pain rippling away. I felt fried.

"...ance! What happened? Lance, god, please respond!" Keith. That was  _Keith_. I never heard him sound like that before. He sounded like he was in pain. Over me? I almost smiled. It would have been cute if I hadn't just taken some serious damage.

Or if that Zyforge cannon's charged-up shot was still getting bigger and bigger, lightning crackling, volatile.

"Keith," I groaned.

"Lance!"

I stopped Blue from drifting off into space with a grunt of fresh pain. "Keith, I'm oka-"

The cannon  _fired_.

It was so blindingly bright. I shielded my eyes from the blast. And it was loud, like static from a TV, but cranked up so high my ears felt like they were bleeding. When they stopped ringing and the spots cleared from my vision, I strained to see what happened.

"Oh no," I breathed.

Iv'na was right. The Zyforge blast had decimated the valley. Where the generator had stood, there was now a gigantic crater, littered with debris from the surrounding cliffs, pieces of generator spires, and little flaming patches. The N'Kendonite fleet hovered in shocked silence.

"It's... gone," Keith said.

Along with anyone in or around it. On the landing pads. In the control room. Those N'Kendonites had families, mates. I felt sick. "We failed," I whispered.

Purple light lit up my field of vision. The remaining Galra cruiser had opened fire on Keith and me, now that its primary target had been effectively destroyed. A shot clipped my shoulder. I spun out until I could regain control.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Keith shouted, deftly dodging two blasts. I had no choice but to do the same, unless I wanted to take an ion cannon to the face.

Every gun was trained on us. It was all we could do to avoid the lasers, let alone get a decent shot of our own in. Red warning lights kept blaring with every hit. "Come on, girl," I gritted out, "Keep it together, come on!"

"What's the Zyforge cannon doing?" called Keith.

I whipped my head to the giant, hulking thing. It wasn't aimed at us, to my shock. It was... steering  _away_. Ignoring us. Instead taking aim at N'Kendon  _Seven,_ orbiting nearby. "It's going after Seven!" I shouted.

" _LANCE MOVE!_ "

The cruiser's ion cannon had locked onto me as I floated still, ogling the retreating Zyforge. Its barrel was already glowing. I could do nothing but widen my eyes as its beam of light came right at me.

I suddenly took a massive broadside hit, knocking me out of its path. When I righted myself, I saw what had happened.

_Keith saved me._

And I watched as Red - as  _Keith_ \- took the full blast of the ion cannon to the back of the head in my place.

A heartbeat of silence for the duration of the blast.

" _NO!_ " The cry ripped through my throat on its way out. Keith. Defended me. Protected me. It wasn't cute anymore, it wasn't cute that he threw himself in front of that blast because now Red was hurtling for the moon's surface,  _oh God Red's eyes weren't glowing they were out Keith Keith KEITH-_

Several fighters got shots in on Blue. There were too many of them, they were swarming me, every direction, and that ion cannon was charging up again, brighter and brighter, and the Zyforge cannon was still leaving us to die alone and Keith was falling, Red's eyes were dead,  _God, just make it stop, please_...

There was a cold feeling in my chest as time seemed to slow to a crawl. It was growing. Temperature dropping, lower,  _lower_ , colder and colder, sharper like shards of ice, hoarfrost, glaciers,  _colder_.

My vision tunneled on the Galra ships. Fury wasn't hot, it was  _cold_. The kind that kills.

They were going to  _freeze_.

I might have been screaming, crying. I didn't know. I gave into the freezing fury inside me, inside Blue, inside us both. No, I wasn't screaming - I was  _roaring_. I slammed my levers forward.

Roaring.

 _Freeze_.

I felt our sonic cannon materialize on our back and fire. But it wasn't sonic disruption. It was cold. And all around us - the enemy fighters, the cruiser, the Zyforge cannon - everything froze. And as hoarfrost crackled over their hulls, ice shards grew into spears, tearing them apart. Every glass surface on the retreating cannon exploded into starbursts of ice. Lights went out. Every last one. The ships hovered dead in space.

I pried my fingers from the lever, my breathing ragged and my throat closing up. Tears were slipping down my cheeks, quietly. I did it. All of that. I stopped them.

Distantly, I heard praise through my radio link with the N'Kendon air squad. Cheers. I heard Iv'na's voice.

Iv'na. I gasped, realization socking me hard in the chest.

 _Keith_.

I scanned frantically, there was no sign of Red. Not in space, at least. He must have hit the moon. I didn't know what kind of shock absorbance our lions had, but a fall from the stratosphere couldn't possibly be good.

So I dove for the surface, praying.


	7. The Dream Team - Hunk

Pidge and I took out the Galra cruiser left on Six before Shiro, Keith, and Lance had even completely disappeared. Vines ripped through its hull while Yellow's claws tore its ion cannon from its moorings. Pidge whooped as it was cleaved in half by explosions - probably the reserve fuel storages catching fire. She then proceeded to order the Galra empire as a whole to suck on an article of genitalia she didn't actually possess.

"Team Punk strikes again," I declared, hoping to calm whatever attitude that compelled her to swear so much.

" _Fuck_ yeah, it does!" she replied. "Record time, I might add."

I sighed. So much for that. I pulled up a video link with An'danderala. "Excuse me, Cipessa Rega, ma'am, N'Kendon Six is clear of Galra hostiles. Where would you like the Yellow and Green Lions?"

"Right where you are is fine," she said, "Your comrades seem to have their moons under control for the time being. Good work, Paladins."

"Uh, Hunk," came Pidge's voice, tight with anxiety, "We're... actually  _not_ clear of hostiles."

I turned to the deep space outside Six's atmosphere, expecting to see nothing but the remains of the cruiser. My mouth fell open when I saw what had warped into its place.

A Zyforge cannon. A third one.

"Oh, heckie," I mumbled.

"Not the word I would have picked, but, uh,  _yah_. We're a little screwed."

"Just a little." I addressed the Cipessa Rega, whose green eyes had gone huge. Behind her in the control room, warning lights were going off. "Don't worry, Your Highness, I don't think we'll be leaving Six anytime soon." I cut off the connection.

"It's releasing fighters!" Pidge shouted, banking Green and zooming off for the cannon.

She was right - bay doors on either side had raised, and fighters were streaming out. "It's like they merged their superheavy artillery with a battleship, throwing a whole hangar in the back," I growled. I followed Pidge into combat and blasted two of them with a single mouth laser.

"Yeah, and check out those stabilizing boosters, they're just like a cruiser's," she added. Vines spurted from windshields all around her. "It really  _is_ a hybrid. Shiro, Keith, do yours look like this?"

The Black Paladin's voice was crackly from interference - probably from the gas planet in between us. "Negative, ours on Two is standard."

"Yeah, ours too-  _LANCE!_ " Keith suddenly screeched.

"What happened?" I called back.

"Idiot just wandered into an ion cannon's crosshairs. What were you  _doing?!_ "

Pidge blocked his comm link before Lance responded. I could practically sense her brown eyes rolling. "Useless lovesick gay," she muttered. "Yo, Hunk, how are we getting at this Zyforge cannon-cruiser? My lasers aren't even making a dent."

"It must be their biggest gun, if Shiro's and Klance's don't have the hybrid hangars and thrusters." I gritted my teeth. and dodged some lasers. "We played right into their hands, it waited until Voltron disbanded before showing up."

Pidge was quiet for a tick. "Did you just refer to Keith and Lance collectively as 'Klance'?"

"Yeah. You know, it's like both their names combined. Easy to say."

"Sounds like a celebrity ship name. I'm so using that-" her voice was cut off by a shout of pain. " _Oh_ , you preprogrammed chrome  _bastards_ , eat  _this!_ " She let loose with her vine cannon.

As she wreaked havoc on the fighters surrounding her, I was struck with an idea. Fighters. The hangars. "Pidge!" I shouted. "If this thing is half battleship, it might have a standard floorplan, which means a standard control hub. And if we can get in-"

"-We can sabotage the system and buy us some time to figure out how to destroy it! Hunk, you're a genius!"

"Yeah, but we gotta hurry, it's starting to charge the cannon," I said. Preliminary lights began powering to life. "The hangar bay doors are our best bet for getting in."

"Alright, let's go!" As one, we took off.

Dodging lasers and fighters. The purple lights grew brighter and more numerous. And as the doors started to lower, exhausted of ships to deploy, we zipped under them and threw our thrusters into full reverse to stop. We were in.

We jumped out of our lions. Several sentries immediately fell to quick blows from our bayards. Pidge used one's severed arm to get us through the interior doors, wires still sparking from its elbow joint.

"This does look like a generic cruiser floorplan," the Green Paladin said as we ran down the hall. "So if we're right, the engine room, along with the power hub, should be the next door on our right-"

"DUCK!" I hollered. She wasted no time and hit the ground, letting me gun down the group of sentries that just turned the corner up ahead. She sprang back up as an announcement came over a shipwide PA system.

"Zyforge cannon to fire in: Thirty Ticks."

"Shit, we gotta  _haul ass_ ," Pidge exclaimed, taking off running for the hub with me in tow.

The severed robot arm got us in. Pidge had her little green bayard wrapped around the inside guard's legs before the doors were even fully open, and he had been tripped and knocked unconscious before we set foot in the room. I turned a slow 180 as I entered, minigun at the ready, scanning the walls and corners for anomalies or threats. My partner made a beeline for the control computer and immediately started hacking in.

"Zyforge cannon to fire in: Twenty Ticks. All personnel brace for impact."

 "Come  _on_ , Pidge!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying," she hissed, typing furiously.

She was never going to shut anything down in time, not even with her incredible speed. She was barely past the preliminary firewalls. That cannon would fire and the star base's communications would shut down. My old anxiety started clutching at my gut. We had to  _stop that beam_.

No, I realized, not stop -  _divert_.

I deactivated my bayard, tapped a button on the edge of Pidge's screen, and watched the panel next to the engine boiler - the one labeled "Manual Override" - slide away. I slammed my fist onto the button it revealed.

There was a rumble and a flare of purple light as strips along the boiler lit up. I couldn't feel any change beneath my feet, but warning lights began popping up behind Pidge's hack screen. The cannon-ship was no longer stationary.

I'd turned on the thrusters - but only the starboard set. We were pivoting.

And then the Zyforge cannon fired.  _That_ I felt - and heard. The entire room jerked to one side, and I clapped my hands over my ears to block out the piercing frequency. After it passed, I rose from my braced position and scrambled to Pidge's side. "What happened? What did the blast hit?" I panicked.

"Hold up," she sneered at the screen. If she was wearing her glasses, I was positive they would have been doing the thing where they reflected the glare. I watched her little hands fly over the keys. Her hands were so tiny. We compared them once - her fingers barely made it to the second crease of my middle finger.  She grinned wide. "I'm in," she said. Two keystrokes pulled up a pirated video channel from the bow of the ship.

My last minute thruster override had been enough. The blast had nicked one of the generator's towers, but instead of incinerating the structure, it had opened up a gaping crater not ten feet from the facility. We were far enough away that that tiny adjustment had spared it. I cheered - and honestly, got a little misty-eyed with relief.

"We're not out of this yet," warned my friend, typing a few more commands. "Someone's gonna show up to investigate. Getting out is gonna be a hell of a lot harder than getting in."

I cleared my head and peered over her shoulder. "What's the plan?"

"The hull's still too tough to puncture with our cannons. I'm jamming open the bay doors we came through. We get to our lions and get as far away from this thing as we can."

"How come?" Her smirk grew. I narrowed my eyes. "You aren't shutting off the exhaust vents on the plasma chambers, are you?"

"I most certainly am. New plan: total destruction."

I paled. All Galra ships used plasma as ammunition for their heavy guns. It wasn't actual plasma, of course - that would incinerate  _everything -_ but some freaky substance the Druids made from super concentrated quintessence. We did some tests on it when we were in Galra HQ, back when Lotor was our pal. The exhaust vents were key to storing it, because if it didn't have a way to release its extraneous energy, it  _exploded_. Almost to nuclear proportions. 

"Pidge," I squeaked, "This isn't ion-class plasma we're dealing with here, this is Zyforge-class. You saw the firepower these things had back on Naxela - heck, look at the size of that crater! You could fit a mid-sized town inside that thing! We've never tested how this stuff reacts under increased pressure-"

"It's Galra plasma. If it's compressed, it'll blow. It's the only thing strong enough to pierce the hull."

"Yeah, as well as our hides!"

She just smirked at me smugly. "Then we'd better be speedy in getting outta here."

I loved Pidge, but she scared me sometimes.

A banging noise came from the closed doors behind us, along with a voice demanding us to open up. It didn't sound prerecorded. They were actual Galra soldiers. Not a half a tick later, a video link from the cannon's bridge appeared on the screens.

"Who's down there?" ordered the captain. From the markings on his chestplate, he was of super high rank - probably  _the_ commander who coordinated this attack in the first place. "Who turned on that thruster? Explain yourself immediately!"

Pidge popped into his field of vision. "It's Voltron, bitch," she grinned. "You fucked with the wrong star system."

"What-"

His outburst was cut off as Pidge slashed her bayard straight through the motherboard in a hail of sparks. "That'll hold 'em," she said.

I unslung my bayard and cast a final glance back at my friend. "We're blasting our way out, and it's not gonna be pretty. You ready?"

"Ready."

I shot down the controls that kept the door shut, and it opened. The Galra lieutenant who had been banging on it was sent stumbling forward. I'd knocked him back into the soldiers behind him before he'd even recovered his balance. We surged into the fray, yowling.

Green laser cords whipped in and out of my peripherals. I kept my fingers on the trigger, holding it down, clearing a path in the direction of the hangar. A Galra bullet clipped my leg, and another pegged me hard in the shoulder blade with an impact that felt like a solid punch. I let out a wordless shout that was half pain and half directions. Pidge heard it. We both disengaged and took off down the corridor, using out jetpacks to propel us along.

"How much time until that plasma chamber blows?" I panted, whipping around to fire on the soldiers again.

She didn't answer right away. I realized her breathing was labored, her teeth were clenched, and her hand... her hand was pressed against her side. My heart jumped into my throat. "Pidge?"

"Maybe a minute," she gasped, making a small noise as she tripped over her feet. Her jetpack barely caught her in time to stop her from falling. She hissed through her teeth. " _Fuck_."

"Pidge-"

" _Forget_ it. Get to your lion," she shouted as we turned the corner into the hangar. We split up, and I forced the image of the Green Paladin clutching her side out of my head as I raced through Yellow's force field and climbed inside.

The image didn't stay out for long. The thought of my friend being injured made my stomach turn. As I gripped the levers and my screens lit up, I hailed her comm link. "Are you okay, Pidge?"

"Almost," she grunted. The soldiers began pouring into the hangar, shooting at our lions. "Just go, Hunk, get out while you can, I'll be right behind you."

" _No_. Never without you," I growled. "It's both of us or neither of us. I don't leave  _anyone_ behind."

Green raised her head at last, and even though I couldn't see Pidge through her eyes, I felt like our lions shared a glance between them for a split second. I almost heard Yellow purr around me.

The moment was over as soon as it happened. We threw our lions into top gear and zoomed out the bay doors.

"Faster," I said to Yellow as we put distance between us and the cannon-turned-atomic-bomb. "Come on, boy. I know it's not your thing, but you gotta..."

I cast a glance over at Pidge, but noticed with a spike of fear that she wasn't keeping up. She was lagging back. She must have been more hurt than I realized.

Yellow suddenly showed me a vision - an image of what to do next. I'd spent enough time in Voltron to know that the lion had to know best, so I pulled one lever back and circled around to Pidge's position. The cannon behind us was starting to fissure from the internal pressure.

I executed the lever pattern Yellow showed me. We bent our head down and took the edge of Green's shield between our jaws like a mama cat picking up a kitten. Our superpowered armor and boosters materialized on our back. With a final shout, they kicked on, and the two of us sped deeper into space at twice - no, three times our previous speeds combined. We were  _booking_.

And then the cannon detonated.

The force sent us tumbling head over tails, but with my extra thrusters and powerful jaws, I kept hold of Pidge and we were soon righted. I let Green go when I deemed it safe, then turned back to look at the damage.

It was nothing but a purple fireball, an H-bomb of plasma. I whistled. "Wow," I said. "Pidge, look. You did it."

I heard her huff a strained laugh. " _We_ did it. If it weren't for you, that fireball would be the generator right now."

"How hurt are you?"

She sighed. "Blaster got me good at point blank. I'm gonna have a hell of a bruise/burn combo when I get back. Sorry you had to save me back there, I was seeing spots. Hurts like a bitch."

"Don't worry about it," I smiled. "Let's get you back to the castle and into a healing pod."

As if on cue, Allura opened a video link. "Hunk, Pidge, what happened?"

"The Zyforge cannon-ship was destroyed, thanks to Pidge's stellar hack job," I declared.

"And Hunk's engineering intuition. I just capped off the thing's plasma reserve until it blew. Hunk was the one who thought to override the thruster engine and save the generator.

Allura's eyes were wide with surprise and confusion. "Oh," she said. "How... how in the world did you do all that in such a short time?"

"Well, it's not like we spent all our time in the Galra HQ reprogramming sentries and pranking the guards," I explained. "Pidge and I know Galra ships like the backs of our hands now. We know all the weak spots."

"Yeah," Pidge added weakly, "We're a good team."

"Oh. Right," I said. "Uh, Pidge needs a cryopod, stat. Allura, could you swing by and pick us up?"

"Absolutely. Stay put, I'll be right there." Before her video feed could cut out, however, another popped up beside her - this time, revealing Lance on a snowy backdrop. He was...  _crying_. He looked more upset than I'd ever seen him.

"Someone," he croaked. Tears and dirt ran down his face. "Anyone, please... help."

"Buddy!" I cried.

"It's Keith," he continued, oblivious to my outburst. "He... he took an ion cannon to the face... and then he... he just..." he covered his mouth. "God, please, just help me get him out of here, please."

"Allura, get to Keith first," I told the princess. "Pidge'll be okay, Keith's clearly in worse shape."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I'm sure."

She swallowed and nodded. Both feeds disconnected.

Pidge and I sat in silence for a while. At length, she spoke up. "Did you see what Lance was doing?" she asked.

"What, crying?"

"No- I mean, yes, but... that was Keith in his arms. I saw the red of his armor."

Slowly, it dawned on me. "Cradling him in his arms," I said softly.

"Bonding moment 2.0." The silence stretched again. "Do you think... think he'll be okay? Keith, I mean. Lance looked desperate."

I frowned and gazed off in the direction I figured N'Kendon Eight must be. "I hope he will," I said. "I don't ever want to see that agonized look on Lance's face again as long as I live."

"Me neither," she whispered.


	8. I Can't Believe He's Done This - Lance

As I hurtled through N'Kendon Eight's atmosphere for the wreckage - the wreckage of the crashed Red Lion, oh  _God_ \- only one thing was going through my mind.

His name.  _Keith_.

He doesn't even know why I told him I was bi before everyone else. But couldn't he tell? Did I not make it obvious enough for him?  _Keith_. When I flirted with Iv'na in front of him. When I teased him all the time.  _Keith_. When I made up that  _stupid rivalry._

He doesn't even know that I remember that bonding moment - and that I liked it.

Doesn't even know that I think I've been ready for months.

To tell him... To admit... that I...

That I...

I could see the Red Lion now, in its own little crater in the snowy taiga. Silent. I pulled Blue out of her nosedive and landed on the edge, then clambered out of the cockpit.

 _Keith_.

Red's head was leaning against the embankment, but her mouth was exposed. I could get in. There wasn't any movement inside. Get in... to find what? The Red Paladin trapped, injured, unconscious... or worse? I swallowed as I crunched through the snow at a run.

 _Keith_.

I stopped before the lion's towering muzzle. Red's eyes were still darkened and lifeless. I placed my hand on the cold metal, the chill biting through my glove, and tried to slow my breathing.

"Listen," I breathed, "I... I know I'm not your Paladin anymore, but... please, I was once. Just let me in this one time. Call up whatever psychic bond you had with me back then, please, Red, I have to get to him... save him, if I can..."

I struggled to find the words to convey my need to the unresponsive cat, so I tried sending her mental images, my thoughts and feelings. My hazy memories of our bonding moment after the battle with Sendak, when I was half delirious from the explosion on the castle's bridge. Bits and pieces of conversations between us during Keith's first missions as the Black Paladin. The warm, blushy feeling I got in my chest when Keith stepped out of that Altean pod with Krolia and Romelle in tow, when I realized he was home and safe and  _hot as hell_. 

Thoughts and feelings I'd never conveyed to anyone ever before.

"This is why I need to save him, this is what he means to me," I begged. "Please, Red... let me do this."

There was a beat of nothing - and then images were sent back into me, a flash of magma and fire and blazing desert heat and one word -  _BRAVE_ \- that seemed to echo through my bones. And then Red's lights flared to glorious life.

I covered my mouth as I almost broke down in relief. The Red Lion raised her head and opened her maw, revealing the path to the cockpit. "Thank you," I whispered, laying a fleeting hand on her lower fang as I ran up the ramp.

 _Keith_.

I wrenched the doors apart.

The seat was empty, and for a split second I feared he'd disappeared -  _died_ \- the same way Shiro had after we fought Zarkon with the teludav. Except the next second, I realized he hadn't been absorbed into the astral plane - the only problem was, he was collapsed on the ground in front of his seat. Not moving.

I didn't know which option was worse, at that moment.

"Keith!" I shouted, dropping next to him and gripping his shoulder pad. "Keith, Keith, it's me, it's your buddy..." His eyes were closed and his mouth was open, slack. Unconscious. Not dead.

I had to get him out, we were way too cramped up in front of his seat. I took him under the arms and hauled him out as gently as I could. His head in his helmet still lolled.

I got him to Red's mouth-ramp and laid him out. The roof of the lion's mouth was angled against the wall of the crater in a way that blocked the snowy wind.

"Keith," I said, removing his helmet and then my own. I don't know why I did that -  _I_ wasn't the one with a possible head injury - but I felt like I needed the same amount of face exposed as he did. No more walls between us, I guess.

I patted his cheeks. "Hey, Keith, it's me. It's me, your buddy, Lance. Please, Keith, wake up, man, you gotta," I rambled, shaking his shoulders gently and pressing my fingers against his neck to feel his pulse. I even ran my hand through his soft hair before I realized what I was doing - and immediately froze. It was ridiculously soft. I'd never touched his hair like that before. 

Instead of doing it again, like I suddenly really wanted to, I placed my hand against one side of his face, the pad of my thumb on his cheekbone. "Keith," I whispered, "Please, open your eyes... Wake up, Keith... wake up..."

And then, I felt him stir. His head shifted. His eyes crinkled, a small noise escaping his lips. I held his face tighter, both hands this time.

His throat bobbed, he crinkled his eyes again... and they opened into dark-lashed slits.

"Keith!"

He inhaled and blinked. His eyes were still half-lidded. "Lance," he whispered.

"Keith, oh God..."

"Lance-"

"It's gonna be okay," I assured him, stroking his hair again. "I'm right here, I'll get you to safety, you're okay now-"

" _Lance_..." There was a new urgency in his tone. His hand came up like he was going to reach for something.

I leaned down closer. "Yeah?" Was he trying to tell me something? Oh, God, was he pulling a Shiro after all, asking me to pilot Voltron in his stead if he didn't make it out? Was he bleeding out somewhere I hadn't noticed, dying before my eyes? I looked him over then, ran a hand down his side, along the black -  _formfitting_ \- space fabric, searching for some hidden wound...

Keith's hand reached my face and my attention snapped back. His eyes were wider, more alert, as that hand slid into my hair to the back of my skull and the other to the nape of my neck. My heart jumped and I felt a blush crawl up my face, what the - 

He pulled me down and  _kissed_ me, holy  _shit_.

It wasn't even a tight-lipped, awkward-middle-school kiss, either. I mean, his mouth was opened,  _my_ mouth was opened - mostly from shock - but he was kissing me  _good_ , slanting my head to the side. His fingers fisted in my hair as his tongue brushed my bottom lip, and  _that_ sent my mind to all  _kinds_ of places. 

Places where he and I were still alone, but there was more panting and  _much_ less clothing. I closed my eyes then and braced one hand beside him to steady myself as I kissed him back.

He exhaled against my mouth, sending shivers down my spine, but after that, he... went still against me. I froze and mouthed his name, my lips brushing his. He wasn't kissing me back anymore. I pulled away further and put both hands on either side of his face as cold fear gripped my chest, tighter and tighter.

"Keith," I said again. It didn't do any good. His eyes were closed again. He passed out. Again. He snapped out of a blunt-force-trauma-induced coma to kiss me and pass back out again, what the  _fuck_... "No," I said, panicking. "No, no, no, don't do this, don't do this to me, please, cut it out, man, I... you..."

He didn't wake up. He was out like a light. I was no doctor, but I was positive that was a very, very bad sign.

I suddenly felt very alone.

I looked back and forth, searching for anyone to help me, but Red had crashed miles from the ruins of the generator and any N'Kendon Eight settlement. There was no one else around and Keith was unresponsive.

With shaking hands - I was crying again, tears falling - I reached for my helmet and sent out an SOS video frequency. "Someone," I begged, the tears coming faster, "Anyone, please... help..."

"Buddy!" came Hunk's voice.

"It's Keith," I gasped. "He... he took an ion cannon to the face... and then he... he just..." I covered my mouth with one hand. "God, please, just help me get him out of here, please."

There was a beat of silence, and then Allura said, "We're coming."

"Hurry," I said. When the connection finally died, I bent back over Keith's face, one hand monitoring his pulse, the other stroking his hair. "Just hold on," I whispered as my throat seized up. I brushed back a strand and pressed a kiss against his forehead. "I got you. It's gonna be okay. Just hold on."

I felt his heart beat under my fingers and watched his chest rise and fall until the silhouette of the Castle of Lions appeared in the sky. I held him against me the whole time.


	9. Answers - Keith

Waking up from cryopod sleep was like floating through some sort of superlight, airy liquid. I didn't know how to describe it. There was just the softest feeling of resistance through my hair, along my whole body, as I rose... and rose...

And then I was standing. My eyes opened. I was looking out at the cryopod room as the shell keeping me inside disintegrated away.

It was empty.

"Keith!"

Nope. Not empty. One person. Standing up from where he was seated on the step, down where I hadn't noticed him. 

 _Lance_.

One look at his angular face, his wide eyes, his broad shoulders in that army hoodie, had me feeling like I was floating all over again. Still half-drowsy, I took a step out of the pod.

And my knees gave out, sending me careening into his arms. He grinned down at me. "Hey, there," he said with a wink.

I shoved him away and braced myself against the edge of the pod, my heartbeat suddenly spiking. I stared at him for a bit before swallowing and speaking. He was acting... off. What was that look on his face? Why was he here? What was going through his head as he stared right back? "Where..." I rasped. "Where is everyone? What happened?"

Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, Shiro and Allura are up with Coran on the star base with the Cipessa Rega, now that the artificial gravity is back on, and I think Matt's there, too," he explained. "Hunk was down here a couple hours ago because Pidge was in the pod next to you for a while, and once she woke up they went to oversee repairs on the base's temporary gravity generator while the one on Eight gets rebuilt from the ground up." Was he  _babbling?_  "Turns out the only one to get Zyforged was ours, so you could imagine how I felt when they told me-"

"Lance-"

"-Anyway, I've been here a couple hours and I haven't slept since before the Galra even showed up-"

" _Lance_." I grabbed him by the shoulders and he shut up. My heart fluttered a little under the direct attention of his gaze. "How... how long have I been out?" I asked.

He blinked - and it might have been my woozy imagination, but I thought he looked just as flustered as I felt. "Six and a half hours," he said quietly. "Technically, it's, uh... I mean, it doesn't mean anything anymore, 'cause we're not one Earth, but by Pidge's clock... it's four in the morning."

"And you haven't slept since... since what, when you woke up this past morning? When was that, eight?"

"Seven," he mumbled.

He must've been exhausted, he was one of those people who could barely function without a good night's sleep. What the  _fuck_ was he thinking? "Lance, why didn't you go to sleep? It's just a cryopod, you  _know_ you come out fully healed. I would've been fine on my own-"

"Yeah, well no one deserves to feel like their friends don't care enough  to wait for them to wake up," he snapped, then froze and turned away. "I mean..." he eventually added, "there's that, and... I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight anyway. I... I needed to know something from you. And... I wanted to ask you the instant you woke up."

He was going to ask me out. He's in love with me. Jesus  _Christ_ he-

"What... do you remember after the crash?"

Not in love with me. Fuck. I shook my head slowly, forcing my fleeting elation down deep. "I... not much," I told him. "I remember knocking you out of the way, but after the ion cannon hit Red and I cracked my head against the dashboard... just bits and pieces, really." I combed through my memories, most of them delirious and fuzzy, dreams blending with reality.

Lance's brows furrowed, but his eyes looked sad. "You seriously... don't remember?" he asked.

"Remember wha-" Oh. Oh, god. There was one dream memory that suddenly jumped out. Lance's face, his hands, a background of white, like an angel from heaven. A smile on his perfect lips. And me, embracing him, feeling his hair, pulling him close to me until his mouth fit against mine and he moved it against me, my tongue-

Lance was still staring at me, but from the look on his face... my expression revealed everything. That wasn't a dream. I... I kissed Lance. In real life. Kissed him.

Holy  _fuck_.

"You kissed me," he said, sliding his hands into his pockets. "You were passed out, but then you woke up and you said my name and..."

"Lance, I..." I was  _mortified_. "I'm so sorry, I thought I was dreaming - not that I dream about... I don't mean that I've... listen, I'm... I'm just really sorry, I didn't want to do that-"

"No, it's..." he held up his hands. "It's okay. Don't worry about it. Honestly, I probably would have done the same thing," he admitted with an awkward laugh.

I eyed him,  _what does he mean what does he mean what does he mean..._ "You mean, like... if you were half-conscious in general, you'd kiss the first person you saw, or..." I hesitated, my face starting to heat up, "If... if you threw yourself in front of  _me_ and... I was the one you..."

His face was turning pink and his hands were still deep in his pockets. "Why did you do that, by the way?" he asked, avoiding the question. "The sacrificing thing, I mean. With the ion cannon."

We just looked at each other for a long time. I got the feeling that the answers to both our questions would end in the same confession... but maybe that was just me. I had no clue. No fucking clue what was going through his head right then. Whether or not he was fighting the urge to stare at my lips and answer me with a kiss, a real one this time, the way I was.

"You want to know why I took that blow for you?" I finally muttered. "Why I saved you? Why my first instinct upon seeing your face was to..." I trailed off, the words dying in my throat. "It's... it's because I..." I ran my hands through my hair and squeezed my eyes shut. "Because I... I like you. I have a crush on you, okay, Lance? That's it. That's the real closeted secret. I like you, I have for a long time."

"I... I know."

Two words hung in the air between us. And then he started explaining. "Look, man," he confessed quietly, "I... I told you I'm bi. You're still the only one who knows, because... I felt like you deserved to be the first. Because you're the reason I really started questioning in the first place."

Oh. Oh, lord.

"And I think I've been in low-key denial for years, like from before I came to the Garrison," he continued. He was blushing. "And once I met  _you_ there... then got thrown into Voltron with you... then became your right hand lion when Shiro disappeared... I don't know. But you're the first guy I've ever fallen for." He shrugged weakly. "I have a crush on you, too."

I'm still in the cryopod. This is some insane dream. My subconscious mind is just taunting me at this point.

"I'm sorry I haven't been emotionally ready to come to terms with the fact that I'm crushing hard on a dude. I'm sorry if I pissed you off, with all my flirting with girls... but you gotta believe me when I say I'm 100% serious about my feelings for you. I'm not trying to screw with your mind.

"No," I breathed, finding my voice at last. "Lance, I believe you. I just... this is..." I took a dazed step towards the doors. "I gotta go."

"Wait." He took my hand in his own, and all of a sudden he was inches away from my face. His palm was dry and warm. I was rooted to the spot, staring into his eyes. He licked his lips nervously and said, "So, to answer your question... I would have kissed you if you pulled me out of my lion. Not anyone else."

I almost kissed him right then. "And... about the sacrificing thing..." I said, "I did it because you mean a lot to me. And it scares me sometimes, the thought of losing you."

His face broke into a teary smile that made my heart melt. And then he threw his arms around me, splaying his hands across my back, and hugged me tight against him. "I love you," he whispered in my ear as he buried his face in my neck.

I slipped my arms around his lean waist under his hoodie. He hugged me tighter at the brush of my hands along his shirt, but didn't pull away. I turned my head until I could smell the male scent of the soap he used in his hair and murmured back, "I... I love you too."

He drew his face just enough away so that our noses almost touched. "Keith," he asked. I never noticed how much I loved the sound of my name on his lips. "Do you... want to be boyfriends? Or is that too much for right now?"

"No, it's not too much, I... yeah, Lance, I'd... I'd love to, really," I replied, slowly running my hands up and down his lower back. "As long as you would, too."

"I do," he insisted, touching my face, his blue eyes intense. "I've never felt this strongly about anyone before. I want to date you."

I smiled. "Alright, well... as of right now... we're boyfriends, I guess."

Lance smiled right back. Then he bent down a fraction. Slowly, like a slow-motion video. His mouth opened a little, his eyelids drooped, and I was moving towards him, closing my eyes, tilting my chin, slowly.

Our lips brushed, close-mouthed, just the gentle crush of our mouths over the bolster of our teeth behind them. After a beat of silence filled with our breathing, I kissed him again, clenching the folds of his shirt beneath my fingertips. He breathed out his nose, slanted his face, moved his jaw, and I felt the edge of his tongue brush the seam of my lips. I inhaled, opened my mouth against him, and let him in.

I was pressed up against the cryopod at that point, and Lance was gripping my hips, everything of his pushing against everything of mine, and he was kissing me over and over. I kissed him back in turn, lips, tongues, teeth, sighs, soft groans. I had one hand on his shoulder blades, but the other I dragged through his hair, feeling the strands between my fingers, twisting them as I held them tight.

That made his whole body stiffen and his back arch just a little as he gasped, unwittingly driving everything below his hips harder into me. I groaned sharply what might have been his name and let his hair go, instead grabbing his shoulder.

"Keith," he said, his breath coming fast and labored.

I rubbed my hand down his arm. I was breathing fast, too, and my pulse was roaring in my ears and down my pants. "Too much?" I huffed.

"Uh-uh," he sighed out, letting go of my hips and instead pulling my head against his own. Our foreheads touched and we held that position as we breathed.

"You're shaking," I said.

"No, I'm not." He took a shuddering breath.

"Maybe we should stop. The others'll be wondering where we are."

"They don't know that you're awake yet."

I smiled and pressed a slow kiss on the corner of his mouth. "We've got all kinds of time. There's no need to rush."

"Well... I mean..." He raised one eyebrow, started smirking, one hand started drifting lower-

I smacked his hand away and spun us like we were fighting until suddenly he was shoved against the cryopod, eyes wide. I had one hand braced on the pod next to his head. "We haven't even been dating for five minutes," I told him. "Let's not do everything all at once."

"Sorry."

I kissed him on his mouth and pushed away, finally ready to get back to my room - even though every fiber in my body was still urging me to go back on my word and do  _everything_ right then and there. I fended off those mental images as I turned back to say, "If you want me to... I can leave my door unlocked."

He went very red. "You mean-"

"If you want to cuddle or something," I clarified.

"Or something?"

I shrugged.

He was smiling then, regarding me with a mock suspicious look. "What happened to 'no rush'?"

I shrugged again.

He laughed. "You know, actually... cuddling sounds good. Sleeping alone kind of sucks."

"Cuddling it is," I smiled, then left the room.

Lance was going to be in my room. I was going to sleep with him - in the literal sense, not the metaphorical sense, but still. Lance was my boyfriend.  _Boyfriend_. I was dating Lance McClain.

I felt like I was floating throughout the empty halls of the castle.

~

The doors to my room slid open, and I must have jumped a foot off the bed, I was so wound up. Except it wasn't Lance standing there. 

It was  _Pidge_.

"Hey, man," she said. Her hair was a mess, she wasn't wearing shoes, and she had an oil smear down her cheek. "Have you seen my handheld ampere-computing scanner? Did I give it to you?" She made a distracted pinching motion with her first finger and thumb as she looked around my empty space. "It's ye small, got a whole bunch of Altean runes and shit all over it, makes this annoying keening beep when it gets too close to an outlet..."

"What?" I choked out. I wasn't really listening to her speak, I was busy internally screaming because if  _Lance walked in when Pidge was here she'd_ flip  _and we'd never hear the end of it._

She sighed. "Guess not. Hunk didn't have it in his room, either. Fuck. It's gotta be in mine. I'm running some diagnostics on the N'Kendonite's tech now that it's all up and running - just for fun, see what kind of improvements I might be able to copy onto the castle or Voltron. Their tech is super cool, man-"

"Why are you still up? Everyone's asleep at this point, aren't they?"  _Translation: please get out._

"I mean yeah, but I'm all jet lagged from the cryopod and I... wait, hold up, I hear it." She froze, then whipped her head to the left, staring down the hall. Her eyes went wide. "LANCE  _YOU_ STOLE IT!"

My gut turned to ice as I heard Lance's voice from down the hall. "Stole what? This thing started making this beeping noise in my room, I came to see if you knew how to turn it off-"

"Yeah, I do, because it's  _mine_ , you hoarder, quit stealing my stuff!" She dashed out of my room. Lance made a noise of surprise, and then footsteps took off down the hall. I sat on my bed, clutching the sheets, staring at the door.

And then Lance walked in, wearing his long-sleeved T-shirt and pajama pants, glancing over his shoulder casually.

"Is she gone?" I asked.

"Yeah. Snatched this thing right out of my hand and took off." He stepped into the room, and the door closed behind him. He blinked. "Jeez, Keith, this place looks like a prison cell. Don't you decorate?"

"No?" I said. "Why should I? Do you?"

"Well, yeah, I thought we all did. Makes it feel like a home." He walked over to the desk - nothing was on it except for Krolia's knife. He frowned. 

"I didn't invite you here to criticize my interior design," I said, crossing my arms.

Lance met my eyes and smirked. "Right. Cuddling or something."

"I thought we agreed on just cuddling."

He shrugged, then came over to the bed. He immediately laid down and stretched out, feeling out the alien mattress. Meanwhile, I was still perched on the edge in my black shirt, pants, and socks. Looking at the sliver of skin between the hem of his shirt and the waistband of his pants when he stretched his arms above his head.

After god knows how long, I realized Lance was watching me, too. We made eye contact, and he raised an eyebrow. "Are you just gonna sit there the whole time?" he asked, patting the space beside him. "That doesn't count as cuddling."

I didn't say anything. Slowly, stiffly, I lay down, scooting as close as I dared, leaving an inch or so between us because... well... he was an attractive guy. In my bed. If we moved any closer, he was bound to notice just how excited I was by that notion. 

Which was ridiculous, we full-on  _made out_  just an hour ago, but why did this feel so different? So... close? I gave him a lifted-eyebrow expression that said,  _Happy now?_

He just grinned and pulled me closer until we were touching from knee to hip to chest, leaving his arm slung across my waist. His pajama pants were a  _lot_ thinner than his jeans, and there was  _zero_ space between us now. I felt heat creep up my face and momentarily forgot how to breathe. He was so warm through his clothes, everywhere we touched. 

At least I could feel that he was just as excited as I was.

"Hi," he said softly. Color rose in his cheeks a little. He knew  _exactly_ what was touching below our hips.

"Hi," I said back, kind of breathless.

He nestled his head deeper into the pillow and smiled at me in a way that made me smile back. He was just so cute. " _This_ is cuddling," he said.

Hesitantly, I slid my arm under his and looped it around his waist. My other arm, I didn't know what to do with, so it just sort of stayed squished, bent, between our chests. "It's alright," I said. We kind of lay there for a bit, looking at each other.

"You can relax, you don't have to be so tense," he said.

"I'm not tense."

The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Nervous?"

"Are you?"

"... a little."

I looked down at the fine weave of his shirt, getting wrinkled against the coarser weave of mine. "Me too, I guess," I admitted.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Can I touch your hair?"

"Sure."

Fabric whispered against fabric and the bed shifted ever so slightly as he moved his arm from around my waist to my head. At first, he traced the curve of the back of my head with his palm, petting me slowly, but after a couple passes he started digging his fingertips in gently, letting my hair slide between his fingers. I shivered.

"Your hair is so soft," he murmured.

Something about the stroke of his hand, the shivery good feeling along my scalp, triggered something in the back of my mind. "Did you do this before I kissed you?" I asked.

His hand stilled. "Yeah. You... remember that?"

"I think so."

He let out a breathy laugh and kept doing it. Over and over, each pass slow and deliberate. Eventually, I felt myself relax. Our bodies were still pressed close, we were still hard against each other, but the feeling of his fingers in my hair was soothing. I snuggled closer and curled my head under his chin, my face against his collarbone. 

Hesitantly, I moved the hand that had been awkwardly squished between us. Lower, along our rib cages. A little lower, until I found the hem of his shirt. I cast a quick glance up at him and he swallowed again and nodded. I touched the bare, warm skin of his abdomen, then slowly slid my palm back up, this time under his shirt, feeling every dip and curve of his chest. His skin was hot under my hand. I finally stopped right between his pectorals, feeling his heart beating in his rib cage. I tucked my head back against him, tugged us close again with the arm around his waist, and we lay there like that for a very long time. His hands never stopped stroking my hair.

At length, I murmured, "Lance?"

"Mm?" His sleepy response vibrated in his chest.

"Are you gonna tell everyone else about being bi?"

He sighed, long and resigned. "Probably should, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah."

He was quiet for a while, thinking it over. His hand had stilled in my hair. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

He tipped my head up a little and kissed my forehead. "I gotta tell them about you, too."

"Okay," I said, looking up at his eyes.

I noticed from my angle and in the soft lighting that there were shadows under his eyes. He looked exhausted, but... content. Relaxed. Happy.

I pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat. "Get some sleep, if you can."

He huffed a laugh again. "I'll try."

Ten minutes later, his breathing was slower, his hand had stopped moving, and he was out cold. I held him in my arms, our legs tangled together, my hand against his bare chest, until I felt myself drifting off, snuggled against his heat.

Content, relaxed, and happy.


	10. The Lounge - Pidge

Once I woke up and Hunk and I got to work on the temporary on-site gravity generator, the N'Kendonites on the star base were standing and walking around instead of floating within like half an hour. Hunk crashed as soon as we finished, but I stayed awake for the rest of the night, studying the N'Kendonites' tech with Cipess Amroldin, An'danderala's chief engineer and younger brother. He was pretty chill for having his repair project hijacked by a couple of teenagers, and then getting shown up when we finished it in half the time it would have taken him.

What can I say. Team Punk is the dream team.

The next day, before we were going to leave the N'Kendon system, I was chilling in the lounge with Hunk, Shiro, and Allura, when in walked Lance.

With Keith.

Hunk and I immediately looked at each other from across the room.

"Hey guys," said Lance, flopping into the couch - but instead of splaying out like he usually did, he kind of curled back in stiffly, resting his forearms on his knees and interlacing his fingers, sweeping his gaze across the rest of us.

Shiro blinked. "Hi, Lance," he said, "Is there... something on your mind?"

He nodded, furrowing his brow. "Yeah... yeah," he admitted. "I, uh... I just... we're all a family, you know, so... there's something I think you should know. Two things, actually." He cast a glance at Keith, who nodded him on.

Hunk and I looked at each other again, eyes wider.  _What was going on_.

"I... recent events have made me start... I don't know, discovering myself more?" Lance went on. "I mean, a big ol' group adventure through the outer reaches of the universe is bound to do that anyway, but... well, I just wanted to let you guys know that, um... I'm... I'm bi. Sexual." He took a deep breath. "I like guys. And girls. Mostly girls, I think, but... guys too."

Shiro stood up, walked to Lance's side, and sat next to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for telling us, Lance," he said with a smile. "We support you."

"You're very brave," Allura added.

Hunk nodded vigorously. "She's right. She's so right, dude, I... I am so proud of you."

Lance looked skeptical. "You are? You mean... for real?"

The Yellow Paladin frowned, offended, and said, "My best friend just came out to my face,  _of course_  I'm proud."

"I mean... I'm sorry if I didn't feel like trusting you very much after you and Pidge were kind of  _dicks_ to me back when Allura and Lotor were a thing, when you  _knew_ I liked her," he snipped.

"What?" Shiro glared at us both. "Guys. Not cool."

"Hey, this is the first time I'm hearing of this," I exclaimed, scooting further back into the seat. 

"Oh, come on," Lance said, "You know what I'm talking about."

"I didn't know! I thought it was funny!"

"Yeah, well, it actually really hurt my feelings for a while there."

Meanwhile, Hunk had this look on his face like he'd just been shot. He reached out his hand like he wanted to touch him, but held back. "Dude," he said softly, "I... I am so sorry. I didn't know you felt like that. It was supposed to be a joke. I'm so, so sorry."

"Yeah, me too," I said.

He shrugged. "I know. It's okay. I still love you guys-" He was cut off as Hunk finally gave him a bear hug.

Allura tipped her head to one side. "What was the second thing you wanted to tell us, Lance?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah." The Blue Paladin released himself and jabbed a thumb at Keith. "I asked Keith out last night. We're dating now."

And I thought the  _bisexual_ bomb was the surprise of the day, that was  _nothing_. You could hear a pin drop in the lounge. Slowly, Hunk slid an awaiting palm my way. "200 gak," he whispered.

"Shut the fuck up."

"C-congrats," Shiro said, bewildered. "I'm happy for you guys."

"Pay up, Pidge." Hunk flexed his fingers expectantly.

"I  _said_ -"

"Were you two placing  _bets?_ " Keith exclaimed. His face had gone red as his jacket, but I was positive it wasn't all from outrage at us. What a cheese.

"Only a little," I scowled.

"Hunk!" Lance squeaked.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Hunk scrambled to explain, "It's just... you're so cute together, I couldn't help it, I wanted you to be happy, man." To me, he muttered, "I want my 200 gak, Pidge."

"So, hold up, have you been shipping us all along? Like for how long? When did this start?" Lance was blushing.

"A while ago, and now  _your smitten ass_  cost me all my alien savings, I hope you're  _fucking elated_  you made the first move."

"Actually, Pidge, he didn't," Keith piped up. Everyone's attention snapped to him, and his blush deepened. "I, uh... I kissed Lance on Eight, when I was disoriented from the crash."

"Oh." A tiny smile grew on my lips. "That's... actually really cute, Keith, and it  _really fucking sucks for Hunk, doesn't it?_ " My friend just groaned.

"Alright, alright, guys," Shiro intervened. "Pidge, Hunk, settle your bets - quietly. Lance, Keith... seriously, congrats. I think you'll be happy together."

Keith cracked a smile. "Thanks, Shiro."

Lance gave his boyfriend a mischievous glance once Shiro and Allura moved on, and said, "Sooo... now that it's out, we can do PDA in public, right?"

"Keep it PG, guys," warned the Black Paladin from across the room.

"Yeah, listen," I said, "I love you guys, but please don't start making out in front of us all the time, 'kay?"

"I thought you shipped it, Pidge," Lance scoffed.

"Not interested in a front row seat, thanks."

"Don't worry, we won't do that to you," Keith hastened to reassure us. " _Right_ , Lance?"

"Of course, of course, not in  _front_ of you guys, yeah."

I watched them enter a stare-off - Lance with a grin, Keith with narrowed eyes. "Ew," I muttered under my breath.

Hunk leaned over and whispered in my ear while Klance was distracted by each other. "I have a proposition," he said.

"Mm-hm?"

"What do you say we call off the bet, and instead buy each other 200 gak worth of noise-cancelling headphones in honor of our takedown of the Zyforge cannon?"

"Why?"

"Because... I'm with you on this topic. They're my friends and I would literally die for them, but... your room is bookended by both of theirs, and my room shares a very thin wall with Lance's." He leaned closer as Lance planted a quick kiss on his boyfriend's cheek, making the Red Paladin recoil in shock. "A very... very thin wall."

Dread shocked me right in the gut. "Oh, hell no."

"You wanna talk about a front row seat. You know it's probably gonna happen sooner or later."

My friend and I shared mutual looks of horror. "Deal," I said. "Let's hit up the space mall the second we leave N'Kendon. Like  _tonight_."

"Agreed."

~

Matt called me over video link later that day, while I was playing with the trash floof family in my room. "Sup," I said.

"Sup," he said back. "Hey, guess who just confessed their love to your truly?"

"Shiro."

"No." He wrinkled his nose in bewilderment. "No, what the hell?"

"It's a  _joke_ , Matt, relax," I said. "Who confessed their love?"

He shook his head before puffing out his chest with a smug look on his face. "None other than the lovely Cipessa Rega An'danderala of N'Kendon Two, of course."

My face lit up. "No way! I can't believe you actually did it!"

"Oh. Well. Gee. Thanks for that vote of confidence in my charms." He rubbed his neck. "I mean... to be perfectly honest, she didn't  _actually_ say the words, but... trust me. It was implied."

I furrowed my brow in concern.

"I sought her out after Shiro and my rebel squad axed the Zyforge cannon targeting Two, and she hugged me. Pidge, you tell Hunk his 'save her home planet' strategy is genius."

"Did she say 'Thank you, Matthew Holt'?"

" _No_ ," he grinned. "It was a 'We are indebted to you, Matt.'  _Indebted_. I'm like a national hero.  _Shiro_ was the one who got the formal thank-you."

"Wow, Matt, that's great!"

He preened. "She also told me before I left that she hoped I'd return and visit N'Kendon sometime." He raised an eyebrow. "So... think she's got a little crush on me?"

"Definitely." I sat back on my pillow. "You actually picked up a girl for once."

"Again, your vote of confidence is uplifting," he said, then thought for a bit. "But... I don't know, I don't think 'picking her up' really cuts it. I was practically living on the star base since the moment I arrived, we found tons of stuff to talk about. Not to mention I ended up locking myself in the airlock  _twice_ \- don't ask me how, I have no idea - and  _she_ was the one to save  _me_ both times. She jetpacked into open space the second time to save me from drifting away. You get what I'm saying?"

I waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, you hopelessromantic," I teased. "Hey, does she like pets? You could give her one of my baby floofs the next time you see her. They'll probably be old enough to leave their mom by then." As if on cue, Gamora floated up to rest on my shoulder. I gave him a scritch on his little green head.

"What if I want to give  _myself_ one of those things?" he asked, reaching towards the camera. "They are so stinkin' cute."

"Well, Lance called the blue one and I think I'm gonna give Hunk the baby yellow one, but you can have the pink and green ones and decide which you want An'danderala to have."

"Sweet." Matt stretched. "Well, Katie, I gotta set off for Zenthama - some rebel commander Skype meeting or something. Where's Voltron headed?"

"Right now? Space mall, until someone gets attacked again."

"Aw, lucky," he moaned. "Oh well. See you later, sis."

I smiled. "See ya, Matt. Congrats again, I mean it."

He just gave me a wink and ended the connection.


	11. Not A Date - Pidge

"Vrepit Sal's seems to be doing well," I said as we munched on our food in the space mall food court. "Whatever weird sauce is on this meat is really good."

Hunk nodded, casting a smile at the obnoxious line for his former place of business. "Yeah, I'd say so," he grinned. "It just took me going Gordon Ramsay on them, is all."

"Some people just need a good kick to get their shit together." 

"Or an ion cannon blast."

" _Right_." I pointed my spork at the Yellow Paladin, launching into a rant. "Can we talk about that whole scene? What happened, Keith threw himself in front of the ion cannon to protect the love of his life?"

"Lance said he body slammed him out of the way," Hunk said.

"Oh, even  _better_." I snorted. "I thought that level of dramatic romance only existed in bad movies and shit, what a  _ham_. Ugh."

Hunk frowned as he took another bite of his meal. "I think it's sweet," he said.

I sighed. "That's because you eat up all this mushy-gushy stuff.  _I_ think it's cliche. Like, if you love someone, why do you have to resort to grand gestures and dozens of roses and public declarations and kisses that happen right at the perfect swell of the soundtrack? Why can't you just love each other and be done with it? It all seems so exhausting. Not to mention Keith almost  _died_ trying to be cute."

"Okay then, Miss Cliche, what would you do if someone got you a dozen roses and declared their undying love for you upon your doorstep?" my friend interrogated.

"I'd shut the door."

" _Jesus_ , Pidge."

I spread my hands in defense. "If they don't know me well enough to know I hate sappy stuff, then why would I ever let them date me?"

"Fair enough." He smiled again. "Hey, are you happy with those headphones?"

"Oh, yeah," I said, looking down at the bag at my feet. "I still can't believe you found some that look almost the same as my old ones that Lance stole."

He shrugged, preening. "Guess I'm just good like that," he said. He paused, waiting for something.

I rolled my eyes. "Do  _you_ like  _your_ headphones, Hunk?" I asked with a grin.

"I do, very much, thanks for asking. The color will go very nicely with my lion."

"Yeah, yeah, you big goofball. Eat your mystery space meat, it'll get cold."

We finished the rest of our food pretty quickly. Aliens walked around us, toting their shopping bags and kids and trays of food. It was so weird. We were light years away from home, from real malls, real food courts, but it still felt  _normal_. Like home. Like I was just chilling with my friend after school. I cast a quick glance around us to make sure no one was paying us two humans any attention, then swept my thumb across my plate to wipe up every last drop of that delicious sauce. It took me several passes to get most of it. 

When I looked up, my thumb still halfway in my mouth, I realized Hunk was staring at me, eyebrows high. We stared each other down like that for a bit, frozen. Then my friend gave in and snorted loudly, his face breaking into a grin.

"What?" I smiled, biting my lip to resist laughing. It didn't work.

"Pidge, we're in public," he tried to say. I was already giggling, and he started laughing, too. It was hard to breathe, laughing harder and harder. I knew my face was red and my eyes were all squinty but I didn't really care. 

"You're..." he gasped, trying to calm down, "You're making a scene. People are looking at us."

I took my glasses off and wiped a tear out of the corner of my eye. "Let 'em, man," I said. 

He sighed. His brown eyes sparkled. "God, you're adorable. You know that, right?"

My laughter kind of died then. I furrowed my brows the tiniest bit. Adorable. He'd... he'd called my face cute before. And my hands, that time we compared them and realized mine were so much smaller. But this was... all of me, this time. Adorable.

Hold up. Why was I agonizing over one word? It's not like it means anything special.

I shook my head and gave him a smirk. "How am I adorable?" I challenged.

"I don't know," he kind of shrugged. "You're just... I don't know. Adorable. Why, is that too sappy for your tastes?"

I laughed once. "Kinda."

"Apologies, then. How about charming?"

"Worse."

"Aw, what?" he smiled. "What adjective do you want? Endearing? Amusing? Brilliant?"

"No, no, no, that's all  _you_ ," I insisted. "You and your big flowery words. Why can't you just say 'fun' or... I don't know, 'funny', or 'smart', or something?"

"Fine. You're fun. Happy?"

I shrugged and leaned back in my seat. "I guess."

He stood up, grabbing his tray and mine with an expression of amused resignation on his face. "Alright. Wanna go somewhere else? Any other shops you wanna see? Clothes? Shoes?"

"There was one that looked like a tech repair store down the hall a little," I said, standing and snatching the bag of headphones off the ground. "They might have some gadgets and things for upgrading the castle and our lions. How about that?"

"That sounds a lot more interesting than clothes shopping," he admitted. "Here, I'm gonna hand these back to the dish washers. Wait right here, then we can go."

"Okay," I said back, leaning against the edge of our table. There was a warm, happy feeling in my body. I used to love going to malls with my friends back in middle school, before I cut my hair off and went to the Garrison. This gave me the same feeling. Except most of my friends were girls, and I never went alone with just another guy back then. My group of friends and I actually used to  _make fun_  of the couples we'd see going on dates.

I shook my head. Except this wasn't a date. Hunk and I were friends. There's a difference. We were two friends eating lunch at the space mall, buying each other headphones, and walking around together. None of that could be considered romantic.

"Ready, Pidge?" Hunk waved at me as he returned.

That happy feeling kind of flared for a second when I saw his face. I ignored it. "Ready," I smiled. And we set off.


End file.
